Next Steps
Things are happening at FPC! Last Tuesday the Session approved our Mission Study. We will be sharing our learnings with the congregation soon. As a part of the Mission Study process, we have also proposed a new Mission Statement, and are currently gathering feedback from the congregation.
Now that the Mission Study is completed, and has been approved by the Presbytery’s Commission on Ministry, they have asked us to decide on a pastoral staffing pattern for First Presbyterian (Solo Pastor, Co-Pastors, Head of Staff and Associate Pastor). When that decision is made, we will be able to elect a Pastoral Nominating Committee (PNC). With this in mind, your nominating committee has been busy nominating members of the PNC and has a slate of nine members to present to you. The Session will call a congregational meeting for the purpose of electing a Pastoral Nominating Committee when we get permission to do so.
The task of the PNC (might as well learn the acronyms, because we Presbyterians love them) is to search for our new pastor and nominate s/he/them to that role. In doing this, the PNC will start with the learnings of our Mission Study. This will help them define who we are as a church and what gifts we are looking for in a new pastor. That information will help them to create a Ministry Discernment Profile (MDP). This is a 9ish page form that denotes who we are as a church, what we are looking for in a pastor, what we can pay, what the demographics are of the church and community, etc. The MDP is the document that prospective candidates will review to see if we are a good fit for each other. There is a computer matching system that will match candidates and churches, but many applications also come by networking, scouring the Church Leadership Connection (CLC), etc.
The PNC will then begin reviewing Personal Discernment Profiles (PDP). The PDP is a 9ish page form where pastors who are looking for a call share who they are, what their gifts and experiences are, what kind of church they are looking for, who can give them references, etc. The PNC will start to cull these candidates into a short-list, and perhaps set up zoom or phone interviews with them. As the short list becomes shorter, the PNC may wish to bring a few candidates in for in-person interviews, which typically last a couple days. From there, God willing, the PNC may be ready to nominate your next pastor, for you to meet, hear them preach, and elect (or not) at a congregational meeting.
The PNC process will necessarily be confidential. Some PNC’s will share super general info – like “we’ve now read 79 MDPs,” but don’t expect to hear about particular candidates.
I hope this helps you to know the next steps in a long process. What the PNC needs most is your prayers. We pray that God will bless their work!
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